from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

To feed; nourish.

To educate; bring or train up.

Synonyms and Nurse, Nourish, Nurture. These words are of the same origin. Nurse has the least, and nourish much, of figurative use. Nurture expresses most of thoughtful care and moral discipline: it is not now used in any but this secondary sense.

To instruct, school, rear, breed, discipline.

n. The act of supplying with nourishment; the act or process of cultivating or promoting growth.

n. the properties acquired as a consequence of the way you were treated as a child

n. helping someone grow up to be an accepted member of the community

v. bring up

v. help develop, help grow

Etymologies

Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin nūtrītūra, act of suckling, from Latin nūtrītus, past participle of nūtrīre, to suckle.

(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

From Middle English norture, noriture, from Old French norriture, norreture, from Late Latin nutritura ("nourishment"), from Latin nutrire ("to nourish"). (Wiktionary)

Examples

˜evolutionary biopsychosocial model™ is meant to encompass the life-history connection between specific components of nature and specific components of nurture that can be expressed teleologically either as ˜nature operates via nurture™ or ˜nurture operates via nature.™